One of Oregon’s deadliest natural disasters happened 120 years ago in rural, north-central Morrow County.
On June 14, 1903, Heppner residents were sitting down to Sunday dinner when the sky unleashed a sudden torrent of rain.
Within minutes, Willow Creek and its tributaries swelled their banks. Toppled trees, mud and debris rushed down a narrow canyon where the mess briefly clogged, forming a massive lake. The makeshift dam didn’t hold for long, bursting forth a wall of water, straight toward Heppner.
In less than an hour, the flood tore homes and businesses from their foundations, reducing most of the town to ruins.
The Heppner Gazette vividly captured the scene: “Without a second’s warning, a leaping, foaming wall of water, 40 feet in height, struck Heppner at about 5 o’clock Sunday afternoon, sweeping everything before it and leaving only death and destruction in its wake.”
The catastrophic Heppner flood of 1903 left at least 247 people dead and is still considered one of the deadliest flash floods in U.S. history.
Today, the town is protected by the Willow Creek Dam, built in the early 1980s by the Army Corps of Engineers.